Red Sox backing off Tyler Thornburg for the time being

Sunday

Mar 5, 2017 at 5:20 PM

FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Red Sox are backing off Tyler Thornburg this week as the reliever is battling both his mechanics and what he called "a dead-arm period."

"I've thrown a lot of pitches in both outings, so I'm taking a little bit of time off to just recover from that," Thornburg said on Saturday. "There's no real point in trying to rush it right now. I'm just trying to get it back to feeling good on a daily basis. I'm going to try to build the arm strength up a little bit so once I do that, I can really concentrate on mechanics."

Boston had already bumped Thornburg from game action to a side session this weekend. They pushed that session back to Tuesday, with the right-hander working on flat ground instead on Sunday.

"It's been more timing in his delivery. He's out of sync right now," manager John Farrell said Sunday morning. "His body is drifting to the plate too quickly. You see a number of pitches left up of the strike zone up to his arm-side."

Thornburg has allowed nine runs (seven earned) on seven hits while recording just four outs this spring. That’s not entirely unusual for a pitcher who has consistently struggled in spring training, and he himself has not been concerned about the results.

"I don't like getting after it arm-wise in the beginning of camp just because I learned early on that it's hard to work uphill," he said. "If I'm ready March 1, that’s a month more to the season, especially when I'm already planning on adding another month onto the season. For me, it's trying to get ready at the right time instead of being ready too early.

"Being on a new team, you always want to make a great first impression. At the same time, I don't want it to be at the expense of me trying to get ready too early. I've had such bad springs where going into the year the coaches may be nervous, and then I just tend to always do really well in April anyway."

April has traditionally been one of Thornburg's best months, as he owns a 2.67 ERA in April games over the course of his career.

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Fernando Abad traveled to Sarasota on Sunday to join Team Dominican Republic for the World Baseball Classic. Abad's departure from Red Sox camp comes at a time when he's battling for a roster spot.

"You love the fact that his country looks upon him as a guy to contribute for the WBC," Farrell said. "But in those positions of competing for a spot, you'd like to think that a guy's going to be here to make that mark here. He's aware of his status on the roster competing for a spot. When he returns, it's constant evaluating that’s going on."

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Craig Kimbrel and Joe Kelly will not travel to the east coast this week, instead throwing one simulated inning back in Fort Myers. Kimbrel will pitch Monday and Kelly Tuesday.

"A three-hour ride to throw one inning, we thought we could be a little bit more productive," Farrell said.

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The Red Sox defeated the Braves 11-1 at JetBlue Park on Sunday, helped by an eight-run seventh inning. Kyle Kendrick tossed four hitless innings as David Price's fill-in on the mound, and Andrew Benintendi had two more hits for Boston.

"He's come as advertised," Farrell said of Kendrick, who has now allowed three runs on five hits over nine spring innings. The righty is one of several pitchers vying for positioning on the depth starter hierarchy.

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